Tales from the Flight of the Phoenix

I had another follow up with Dr. A. this week.

So this week I actually stopped in for a follow up from Dr. L. first.  She was quick and didn't say much, but she told me I was healing well, but needed to be using my arms more since I don't have all of my flexibility yet.  Boo...

Then I was off to see Dr. A., who always welcomes me so openly and always makes me feel like more than just a patient.  That sounds corny but I'm glad to have a doctor like that.  So he checks all my wounds - which he still squints his eyebrows at - and says that there is still slow and steady progress.  Again, at this point he is not considering surgery or any other major procedures.  I think he's still hoping for it to heal completely on it's own and not put any more stress on my body. 
Which made me really surprised when he said he wanted to expand them again this week!  So once again he takes that giant expander needle and jams it into each breast and fills them with over 100cc of saline.  Last time it was just uncomfortable, but this time it hurt!  Although they didn't grow real big, I still felt the tight stretch of the muscles and the skin over each breast.  While I was so glad to make this next step, I was in pain all the way home and through most of today.  So of course I have mixed feelings about that process.
But the best part of the visit was that I was able to remove my drains! They've been in for over 4 weeks and have slowly began to stop draining anything.  The drains are practically ripped right out of place, so I was overly anxious about it.  As Dr. A. pulled off the tape and broke the stitches, he kind of laughed and said "Ok tell me when I can pull them" and in my state of panic I kept repeating "Just do it" without looking down at my abdomen.  But before I could even finish a thought and take a deep breath, I looked up to see Dr. A. holding the drains in his hand and looking down at my drain incision smiling away.  Apparently, I didn't even feel a thing.  Good one Dr. A.  Without my drains I feel so free to move and go and not have to wear any form of drain carrier.  My clothes fit more normally - as much as normal can be right now - and I feel like I'm over a really big hurdle in all of this!  I'm so excited!